Remote-controlled operation system for electrical consumers

ABSTRACT

An operation system for electrical consumers (19) has an operating device with a transmitter and control devices with receivers (16). The control devices have an evaluation unit (17) and a control unit (18) which is driven by the evaluation unit and controls the electrical consumers (19). The evaluation unit (17) distinguishes between control signals and scenario commands. When specific scenario commands are received, the state of the control unit (18) and hence the state of the electrical consumer (19) can be stored and re-established. A separate converter which evaluates the signals received from the transmitter and forwards them to the control devices can preferably also be used.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a remote-controlled operation systemfor electrical consumers which has an operating device with atransmitter and at least one control device with a receiver, to whichthe electrical consumers are connected, the control device having anevaluation unit which evaluates signals received from the transmitterand a control unit for the consumer to be connected.

PRIOR ART

A wide variety of control means or operating means exist in particularfor household electrical consumers such as light fixtures, audioequipment, light protection systems such as sun blinds and the like. Themajority of such electrical consumers are customarily operated by meansof switches situated directly in the power leads, that is to say areswitched on and off, and are also controlled if necessary. Frequentlyaudio equipment such as television sets and HiFi units, in particular,is customarily operated by means of remote controllers, in which casethe devices are usually provided with a constant power supply via thepower supply network. Remote-controlled switches for light fixtures arealso already in use in a few cases. Common to all these devices is thefact that each individual consumer is operated using its own operatingmeans, that is to say, for example, when there are a large number ofdevices in a room, a plurality of transmitting devices are required andare present for operating the individual consumers.

The object of the present invention is then the capability ofremote-controlled operation of a plurality of electrical consumers bymeans of a control system and at the same time the ability to storepreset states of the various consumers and call them up again simplywhen required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This object is achieved according to the invention in that theevaluation unit contains storage means for storing at least one state ofthe control unit, which is driven according to the evaluation of theevaluation unit.

The storage means preferably contains a state register and a statetable, the evaluation unit transferring the current state of the controlunit used for controlling the control unit from the state register intothe state table when a store command is received.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the state table contains aplurality of memory locations with corresponding memory locationnumbers, and a store command is transmitted with a scenario numbercorresponding to a memory location number, the current state of thecontrol unit being transferred into the corresponding memory location ofthe state table.

When a retrieve command with a corresponding scenario number isreceived, the state of the corresponding memory location of the statetable is transferred into the state register.

The operation system preferably contains means for the selective storageof a scenario in selected control devices.

A further embodiment of the invention is one wherein it contains aseparate converter which retransmits the control signals received fromthe operating device and processes commands received from the operatingdevice and retransmits them as scenario commands.

The converter preferably contains, connected to an evaluation unit, areceiving part, memory, keypad and transmitting part, and thetransmission between the operating device, the converter and the controldevices is based on individual telegrams with an address field and adata field. The depression of a key on the keypad prepares theevaluation unit of the converter to interpret the address field of thenext telegram received from the operating device as a special commandand to retransmit it as a scenario command.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An exemplary embodiment of the invention will be explained in greaterdetail below with reference to drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the room diagram of an operation system for electricalconsumers,

FIG. 2 shows the block circuit diagram of a control device,

FIG. 3 shows a memory of the control device,

FIG. 4 shows an operation system with converter,

FIG. 5 shows the block circuit diagram of an operating device,

FIG. 6 shows the block circuit diagram of the converter, and

FIG. 7 shows a memory of the converter.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows the basic design of an infrared remote-controlled operationsystem for electrical consumers. Various consumers, here light fixtures13, audio unit 14 and window blinds 15 for example, are controlled bycontrol devices 12 by means of an operating device 11 which is designedin the form of a hand-held transmitter. Said consumers can be switchedon and off, or controlled if required, depending on the function rangeof the control devices 12.

FIG. 2 shows the schematic block circuit diagram of a control device 12.The signals transmitted by the transmitter are received by means of areceiver 16 and are supplied to an evaluation unit 17. Said evaluationunit 17 evaluates the signals S1 supplied to it and drives a controlunit 18 accordingly. An electrical consumer 19 is connected to saidcontrol unit 18. For light fixtures, for example, said control unit 18is designed in such a way that it can vary the light intensity of thelight fixture by controlling the current. Corresponding control signalscome from the evaluation unit 17 in this case.

The receiver 16 comprises a receive diode D1 which converts infraredsignals into current, and a preamplifier 20 which conditions the weakcurrent signals received in such a way that they can be processedfurther by a downstream microprocessor or ASIC 21 of the evaluationunit.

The transmission of commands between the transmitter (operating device11) and the receivers 16 of the control devices 12 is based onindividual infrared command telegrams, in which the information isdigitally encoded. Each telegram contains at least one address fieldwith address bits and one data field with data bits.

The evaluation unit 17 (FIG. 2) contains, for example, two codingswitches 22 to determine a device address A (3 least significant bits)and a group address G (3 most significant bits). The microprocessor orASIC 21 reads in said addresses (G, A) when a command telegram isreceived and compares the address field with the address set at thereceiver 16. If the addresses match, the command is stored for furtherprocessing.

A plurality of control devices 12 can be addressed with an operatingdevice 11 by means of the address coding of the command telegrams.

Specific special commands are preferably transmitted as specialaddresses in the address field of a telegram, it being possible for allthe control devices to receive and execute said special commandstogether.

In order to store a current state of the control unit 18 and hence ofthe electrical consumer 19, for example the light fixture, theevaluation unit 17 contains a memory 23 (RAM or EEPROM).

The memory 23 permits the storage of states for driving the control unit18. The microprocessor or ASIC is notified via m MODE inputs 24 whichtype of control unit 18 is to be driven, whereupon it then calls up thecorresponding program in the program memory 25 (ROM). It is thuspossible to generate a plurality of different control signals S2 forvarious control units (for example generalized phase control, relay,etc.) with a single microprocessor or ASIC, to be precise depending onthe MODE inputs.

The memory 23 contains a state register 26 which stores the currentstate of the control device, that is to say the actuation values fordriving the control unit (FIG. 3).

The current state of the control device 12 can be stored, activated,deleted or temporarily deactivated in the evaluation unit 17 of thecontrol device 12 by corresponding commands or scenario commands of theoperating device. The microprocessor or ASIC 21 transfers the currentstate from the state register 26 into a state table 27 of the memory 23by means of a store command. Said state can be called up again by meansof a retrieve command, in which case the microprocessor or ASIC 21transfers the desired state from the state table into the state registerand uses it as the current state value for driving the control unit.

The state table 27 is preferably designed with sufficient capacity forstoring a plurality of states.

The use of a separate converter 28, as illustrated diagrammatically inFIG. 4, proves to be particularly advantageous. Said converter ispositioned at the most suitable location in the room and has as its taskthe amplification and forwarding of the signals emitted by the operatingdevice 11.

The control devices 12a and 12b, for example, are driven by theoperating device 11, in which case the converter 28 simultaneouslyreceives the commands and is able to retransmit them amplified after ashort time (approx. 1 ms). The control devices are designed in such away that any duplicated reception of a command is correctly interpreted.

According to a preferred embodiment (FIG. 5), the operating device 11comprises a keypad 29 with 4 keys T1, T2, T3, T4, a microprocessor orASIC 30, an address presetting means 31 and a transmitter stage.

When any of the keys (T1, . . . T4) is pressed, the output signal S3 ofthe keypad 29 is read in by the microprocessor or ASIC 30 and indicateswhich key on the keypad was pressed. The microprocessor or ASIC 30generates a signal S4 therefrom, which selects, by means of a logiccircuit 32 of the address presetting means 31, a device address set onthe operating device with the aid of coding switches A1, A2, A3, A4.

Each key of the keypad is assigned to exactly one of said deviceaddresses. The selected device address A5 determines the 3 leastsignificant bits of the address field in the telegram, and is read in bythe microprocessor or ASIC 30. At the same time a group address set witha coding switch G1 is read in by the microprocessor or ASIC 30 anddetermines the 3 most significant address bits of the telegram.

The microprocessor or ASIC 30 generates a control signal S5. The controlsignal S5 contains address bits (A5, G1) and data bits, which correspondto the length of the key depression for example. The control signal S5controls a current source 33 connected in series with a transmit diodeD2. The diode D2 generates a light signal in the infrared range inaccordance with the current.

According to a preferred embodiment, the scenario commands are triggeredby the converter 28. All the control devices 12 situated within thereceiving range of the converter 28 can receive said scenario commandsregardless of the address (G, A, FIG. 2) set on the control device. Thetotality of all the actuation values which can be stored with a scenariocommand in the accessible control devices is termed a scenario; this maybe a lighting mood, for example, if all the control devices 12 containcontrol units 18 for controlling luminaires.

A total of five commands can be executed: store scenario (spontaneouslyor selectively), retrieve scenario, delete scenario, delete allscenarios.

The converter 28 contains (FIG. 6) a receiving part, a microprocessor orASIC 34, a keypad 35 and a transmitting part.

The receiving part comprises a receive diode D3 which converts theinfrared signals into current, and a preamplifier 36 which conditionsthe weak current signals received in such a way that they can beprocessed further by the downstream microprocessor or ASIC 34. Thetransmitting part comprises a current source 37 which is connected inseries with at least one transmit diode D4 and which is controlled bycontrol signals S6 of the microprocessor or ASIC 34.

The keypad 35 contains three keys, a MEMO key TM, a SELECT key TS and aDELETE key TD, which can be read by the microprocessor or ASIC 34.

A memory 38 (RAM or EEPROM) of the converter 28 contains a scenariotable 39 (FIG. 7) with n memory locations (n=16 for example), withcorresponding memory location numbers (1, 2, 3, . . . n).

The state tables 27 of the control devices (FIG. 3) also contain nmemory locations with corresponding memory location numbers 1, 2, 3 . .. n.

The system permits the storage of set states of all the control deviceswithin the receiving range of the converter 28. n scenarios can bestored in any number of control devices.

Once the control devices 12 have been set as desired with the operatingdevice 11, the MEMO key TM is pressed on the converter 28. As a result,the microprocessor or ASIC 34 of the converter 28 is prepared tointerpret the address field of the next telegram received from theoperating device 11 as a scenario command. A key is now pressed on theoperating device with which the relevant scenario is to be called up infuture. The various memory locations of the scenario table 39 aresearched through for the corresponding telegram address in the converter28. If the address is found, the corresponding memory location number isread out by the microprocessor or ASIC 34. If the address is not found,the first free memory location in the scenario table 39 is sought, theaddress is stored and the corresponding memory location number is readout.

If the scenario table 39 is full, this is indicated to the user by aflashing warning message. In order for it to be possible to program anew scenario in this case, an existing scenario must first be deleted. Astore command with the memory location number read out is then sent bythe converter 28 to all control devices as the scenario number.According to FIG. 3, the current state (actuation value for the controlunit) is entered in the state table in the control device under thecorresponding memory location number, the existing actuation value beingthereby overwritten.

FIGS. 3 and 7 shows the storage of two scenarios by way of example. Thealready stored first scenario with scenario number 1 corresponds to thetelegram address G1A1 which is activated by key T1 of an operatingdevice with group address G1 (FIG. 5). The address G1A1 is stored in thememory location number 1 of the scenario table 39 and the correspondingstate Z1 is stored in the memory location number 1 of the state table 27of a control device. To store a scenario corresponding to a state Z2,said state is first set using the control device 12. The key TM is thenpressed followed by the key T3 of the operating device 11. The operatingdevice 11 sends a telegram with the address G1A3. Said address isinterpreted by the converter as a scenario command and the address G1A3is sought in the scenario table 39. Since only scenario 1 is stored inthe scenario table, all other memory locations 2, 3, . . . n are empty.

The address G1A3 is stored in the next empty memory location and thecorresponding memory location number (2) is sent as scenario number 2with a store command by the converter 28. All the control devices 12within the receiving range receive said store command with scenarionumber 2. The current state Z2 of the state register 26 is transferredinto the memory location number 2 of the state table 27.

A scenario is called up by pressing the key assigned to the scenario onthe operating device. The microprocessor or ASIC 34 of the converter 28searches in the scenario table (FIG. 7) for the address from the addressfield of the telegram transmitted by the operating device. If theaddress is found, a scenario retrieve command with correspondingscenario number is sent to the control devices, otherwise the receivedtelegram is retransmitted after amplification. The scenario retrievecommand is handled as follows in the control device:

If the state value stored under the scenario number is not found to beempty (not defined), the state value is transferred into the stateregister 26 as current state value for driving the control unit.

If, for example, the scenario 1 is to be called up, then for example thekey T1 of the operating device 11 is pressed. The microprocessor or ASIC34 of the converter 28 finds the corresponding address G1A1 in thememory location 1 of the scenario table 39 and sends a retrieve commandwith the scenario number 1. In the control device, the microprocessor orASIC 17 detects the retrieve command and transfers the state value Z1,which is stored in the memory location 1 of the state table 27, into thestate register 26.

With this method only the assignment between the key on the operatingdevice (with set address) and the scenario is evident to the user, thesystem selects the corresponding scenario numbers independently.

The system preferably permits a selective programming of a scenario. Inthis case a scenario is consciously programmed and individual controldevices can be consciously declared as not belonging to the scenario. Noentry is made under the corresponding scenario number for these controldevices in the state table.

In order not to use a separate store and retrieve command for eachcontrol device, a reset signal which marks all the existing controldevices as not affected is preferably transmitted before a state isstored.

A reset signal is sent by the converter 28 by pressing the SELECT key TSof the converter 28. Each control device that receives said reset signalwill detect it and mark itself as not affected. A control device markedas not affected will ignore the next store command. If the state valuestored in the state register 26 of the control device is now altered, bymeans of any control signal sent specifically to it from the operatingdevice, then, in addition to the execution of the corresponding action,said control device is marked as active. If a control device marked asactive now receives a store command, then the current state istransferred into the state table. In this way all the control deviceswhose state was altered in some way or other since reception of thereset signal are incorporated in the scenario.

Once all the desired control devices have been set to the correspondingstate, the MEMO key TM must be pressed on the converter. The furtherprocedure is the same as in the scenario storage described above, exceptthat the state value is stored only at the active control devices. TheSELECT mode is reset at the same time.

It is thus possible to set, for example, a room atmosphere individuallyby means of the installed light fixtures and to store this state. Saidstate can then be re-established at any time simply by pressing a key.It is particularly advantageous here that the consumers not belonging tothe scenario are not influenced thereby. If table 27 is used to store aplurality of states, then, for example, several users can store theirindividual settings and call them up again at any time under thecorresponding scenario number.

This selective programming is used especially in situations whereconsumers are to be excluded from a scenario, for example if a radio isto be switched on and off by means of a control device irrespective ofthe desired lighting scenario.

A scenario assigned to a key of the operating device can be deleted bypressing the DELETE key TD on the converter, whereupon the converter isprepared to use the address of the next telegram as the address for thescenario to be deleted. The key assigned to the scenario must then bepressed on the operating device. In the converter 28, the scenarionumber corresponding to the address is sought in the scenario table 39,and if it is found, the address entry is set to empty (not defined),then a scenario delete command with this scenario number is sent to allcontrol devices. The actuation value is set there in the state table 27to empty (not defined) under the corresponding scenario number.

According to a preferred embodiment, all scenarios can be deletedsimultaneously by pressing the DELETE key TD of the converter longerthan a specified time, for example 5 s.

All the entries in the scenario table 39 are then set to empty and aspecial command is sent to the control devices to delete all scenarios.All the memory locations in the state table are set to empty therein.

All scenario commands, that is to say store commands, retrieve commands,delete commands and reset signals, are preferably transferred as specialaddresses into the address field of a telegram. Each control device thenreacts to the reception of said scenario command, in which case thenecessary scenario number is then transmitted in the data field of thetelegram if necessary.

The following addresses may correspond to the following scenariocommands by way of example:

Store command: 111 110

Retrieve command: 111 101

Delete command: 111 100

Reset signal: 111 011

We claim:
 1. A remote-controlled operation system for controlling aplurality of electrical consumer devices, the system comprising:anoperating device with a transmitter for transmitting control signalsincluding store command and retrieve command signals; each said consumerdevice including a receiver for receiving said control signals and acontrol device including an evaluation unit for evaluating signalsreceived by said receiver; said consumer device further including acontrol unit for controlling the associated consumer device, each saidevaluation unit including storage means for storing at least one stateof an associated control unit and for driving said associated controlunit; each said storage means including a state register for storing acurrent state of the control unit and a state table; said evaluationunit transferring the current state of the control unit used forcontrolling the control unit from said state register into said statetable upon receipt of said store command signal; said state tableincluding a plurality of memory locations with corresponding memorylocation designations, and wherein a store command is transmitted fromsaid state table with a scenario number corresponding to a memorylocation designation, the current state of said control unit beingtransferred into the corresponding memory location of said state table;and each of said consumer devices transferring the corresponding memorylocation of said state table into said state register upon receipt of aretrieve command.
 2. A remote-controlled operation system as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the operation system further comprises means for theselective storage of a scenario in selected ones of said control devicesonly.
 3. A remote-controlled operation system as claimed in claim 2,wherein said means for the selective storage transmits a reset signalbefore the transmission of a store command so that all said controldevices mark themselves as not affected when the reset signal isreceived, and ignore the next store command, and a selective alterationof the state of the state register upon receipt of said retrieve commandmarks selected control devices as active again between the reception ofthe reset signal and the reception of the store command, and permits theselective storage of a scenario in said selected control devices.
 4. Aremote-controlled operation system as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising a separate converter which amplifies and transmits controlsignals received from said operating device and processes predeterminedcommands received from the operating device and retransmits saidcommands as scenario commands.
 5. A remote-controlled operation systemas claimed in claim 4, wherein said separate converter includes amicroprocessor, a keypad for controlling said microprocessor, a receiverfor receiving control signals from said operating device, and atransmitter for transmitting control signals to each of said controldevices, and wherein the transmission between the operating device saidseparate converter and said control devices is based on individualtelegrams with an address field and a data field, and wherein thedepression of a key on the keypad prepares the microprocessor of saidseparate converter to interpret the address field of the next telegramreceived from said operating device as a special command and toretransmit said command as a scenario command.
 6. A remote-controlledoperation system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the memory of saidseparate converter includes a scenario table including a plurality ofmemory locations with corresponding memory location numbers.